II. A Divine institution may be used by men to cloak their iniquity. The absence of a right motive is enough to turn the sacrifice into an abomination, as we have seen (see also on chapter [xv. 9], page 408), but this comparatively negative wrong seems to lose some of its guilt beside the actual crime of the second clause of the verse, when men actually put on the outward semblance of religion, not from inadequate ideas of the requirements of God’s law, or from the force of habit, or in a thoughtless spirit, but with the deliberate intention of deceiving their fellow-creatures. For it is inconceivable that any reasonable being can for a moment suppose that he can blind Him before whom all things must be “naked and opened” (Heb. iv. 13). If he believes in a God he cannot think that He is a Being who can be imposed upon by such a miserable deception, and, this being granted, it is most astonishing that any creature can presume to offer so great an insult to his Creator. And yet we know that sacrifices have been and are even now being offered to God for no other purpose than to cloak sin.
outlines and suggestive comments.
This is a New Testament idea:—“Ye ask and receive not,” saith the Apostle James, “because ye ask amiss.” How? Why, precisely in the way that the proverb points out, because ye do it for an interested purpose; as the Apostle expresses it, “that ye may consume it upon your desires.” The wicked man asks for heaven that he may consume it in keeping comfortable through a long eternity. The proverb in verse 17 postulates the opposite. In merely loving happiness a man cannot create wealth. The mass of hypocrites, therefore, are those eternal-happiness hypocrites. . . . There may be other reasons, but that additional and fundamental among them all is this deepest one, that religious acts cannot be accepted if they are built upon nothing tenderer than “a calculated purpose.” (So Miller translates the last two words. See also [Critical Notes].) “Ye seek Me,” says our blessed Redeemer, “not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled” (John vi. 26).—Miller.
For Homiletics of verse 28, see on chap. [xii. 19], page 275. “The man that heareth” is evidently the man who is teachable and open to conviction, and therefore qualified to bear witness of the truth.
outlines and suggestive comments.
The last clause of the proverb seems to fix and restrict the first. A false witness often becomes so by the culpable habit of thoughtlessly repeating, without examination or certain knowledge. A man may thus do very serious injury to his neighbour’s character or property. It proves a very loose conscience, and an utter want of that “charity which covers” instead of exposing faults. It is “rejoicing in iniquity” rather than “rejoicing in truth.” This false witness will certainly be punished by God; and even by man he will be confounded and silenced. No one for the future will regard or receive his testimony. But the man that heareth—the true witness who speaketh only what he heareth, and is fully acquainted with—he speaketh constantly—to conviction. He holds to his testimony and never contradicts himself. He “speaks the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” His word, even if it had been slighted at first, gains more and more credit and authority when the false witness shall have perished (chap. xii. 19).—Bridges.
main homiletics of verse 29.
The Face and the Way.
The last verb in the text is better translated—establisheth, or maketh firm.
I. What is intended to reveal may be used to conceal. The human countenance is intended to express the feelings of the mind, and when a man is not afraid for another to read his thoughts and intentions, his face is to a great extent the index of his heart. But a bad man is unwilling that his neighbour should know what is passing within him—his thoughts and purposes will not bear the light—they are so selfish or impure that he is ashamed of them, or they are occupied with some malicious plan which must be concealed if it is to be successful. He therefore hardens his face—puts on an appearance of innocence and frankness as a cloak of the evil underneath. But this method of life is not an easy or a pleasant one—the contrast in the second clause seems to imply that such a man walks in an uneven or a miry road—it is hard to be always acting a part and to be obliged at all times to look what we do not feel, and there may come unguarded moments and unlooked-for surprises when the mask will fall and the truth come to light.